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mlowrance

2 Posts

7055

September 13th, 2004 14:00

Status BLK

I have 4 Powerconnect 3024 stacked. The previous administrator who is no longer with our organization set up these switches. I have some ports on the web interface admin page that show their status as BLK. I did not find any information in the docs about what this means? Any help would be appreciated.

Also and this may seem like a strange question, but the 4 switches as stated are connected together with stack cables. Then they are also connected with uplink cables on the front. This is my first experience with Dell switches, but I assume that since the stack cables are installed, these uplink cables are not necessary. Is this correct?

Thanks for any help.

matt

GregG1

2 Intern

 • 

812 Posts

September 13th, 2004 14:00

The BLK indicates a Spanning Tree Blocking status. There are two common reasons for this status:

  1. An inactive port will show as Blocking. A port in a down state starts as Blocking. When the port initializes, it will transition from a Blocking state to Listening, Learning, and finally Forwarding. If "fastlink" is enabled on the port, it will transition directly from Blocking to Forwarding.
  2. If Spanning Tree detects a redundant link, it will block it to prevent a bridging loop. When the redundant link is lost/removed, the blocked link will be enabled.

As for the direct links from the front of the switches, these should not be used in a stacked configuration. Connecting stacked switches via the ethernet ports will basically create a redundant link that Spanning Tree is not capable of blocking.

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